5 of the Lawers Group

[Kenny Monaghan]

We set off from the National trust car park at 09.30, the prospects for the day were great, good clear skys and sun. There were some nice images looking back to Killin with the cloud in the valley below us. We made it to the top of Beinn Ghlas in perfect time for the clouds in the valley to start moving towards the sky so the views became limited for a wee while. Rather than wait we headed for Ben Lawers which was looking great but our good timing again meant by the time we got there the clouds were shifting through, it was looking like An Stuc would be our first decent view. We meet a wee belter of a westie on Ben Lawers(Hamish), he decided the top of the hill was his territory, when we were getting our photos of the Cairn he gave us a good growl to warn us away from his patch. Off we went then to An Stuc and finally got to see what makes all the effort worthwhile Scotland at her best the views all round were stunning so we sat for about 15 minutes having a sandwich and some water.Suitably refreshed we headed for Meal Garbh, the descent from An Stuc is certainly a memorable one, it's quite steep and there's quite a lot of loose ground, I wouldn't like to try it in the snow and ice. This is where the path went from being a good solid path to a wet grassy one, the route up Meal Garbh was pretty much a grass slope with not too much to bother about, but the views all round were superb especially looking back to Ben Lawers. We headed straight on for Meall Greigh again another grassy slope made alot better with the good visibility all around and a few guys on para gliders moving in and out the hills. From the car park to Meall Greigh took us just short of 4 and a half hours, now it was time to head down the valley and walk back to the car, it looked pretty straight forward from the top of the hill, so we headed the most direct route down for the dam which is where the path starts. We took to the road and headed round Ben Lawers towards Beinn Ghlas, the end road turns off to the left for Tombreck, but there's a fork to the right heading for the Ben Lawers nature reserve, the road ends above the next dam (Allt an Tuim Bhric) we crossed the dam passed some more sheiling ruins. It was then just a case of continuing round the foot of Ben Lawers and Bhein Glas till we got back on the path to the car park, it took us almost 2 and a half hours to walk back to the car park but it was well worth it as the ground was decent enough walking and the weather was great, a wee chill in the air to keep us cool while the sun was shining,It just doesn't get any better.

One wee question about this walk, am I the only person who looked at Loch nan Cat and seen Maggie from the Simpsons.